The smoke and dust entwined dancing together as the chaos of the search party flooded the street, and in the distance, bombs landing echoed throughout Sokovia.
Two bodies had been uncovered in the rubble of what was once a beautiful large home, looming over the other much smaller houses along the street.
What had once been the best place to play and laugh with friends had been reduced to nothing but rubble with one large missile in the center of it all, threatening to tear apart what was already destroyed.
Avalynn Lackova clung desperately to her antsy daughter, praying that she wouldn't lose the little girl in the blind madness of the final search day.
The officials had announced, their voices calming the storm of frantic friends and relatives hoping to find the two young twins still trapped inside the debris, that today was the last day they would be searching.
Nobody could argue, there was a war waging around them. The officials couldn't spend all their time for two ten-year-olds stuck in the rubble of their own home.
However, to the young Lackova squirming in her mother's arms, that was worse than hearing her own home had been destroyed.
Clio Lackova had been best friends with the Maximoffs since they were toddlers. They clung to each other's hands as they took their first steps, Clio went to her first day of school with their family, when Clio ran away from home, she ran straight across the street to their home and hid under Wanda Maximoff's bed when her mother came looking for her.
They were closer than any of their parents thought possible. They never did a thing without each other, so when Clio got the news that the two people she cared for most in the world might be dead, her world began to crumble away from her.
All that mattered was the debris of the home she had roamed freely growing up and the bodies that were uncovered.
Each second lasted an hour as Clio desperately watched the men in heavy suits kicking and tossing the foundations of her childhood away as if they were simple stones, easy to kick about and emotionless.
She felt her heart shattering as she watched the careless and almost sinful actions being committed by the people who were supposed to save the lives of her best friends.
Her mother hugged her tightly and each breath from the ten-year-old came labored as she awaited the news that they had found the bodies.
She didn't believe any other news was possible until one of the men announced that he might have found something under Pietro's bed.
Clio's heart stopped and with the force of an adult man, she shoved her mother away and bolted towards the house while her mother desperately cried after her child.
The man pulled out a hand and Clio could feel each second dragging on as if deliberately attempting to torture the young girl as much as possible.
It was only when the living body of Wanda Maximoff was pulled out of the ashes did Clio Lackova break down in tears of joy.
Ignoring all orders to cease, Clio jumped to Wanda and Wanda's eyes widened when she spotted Clio.
The brunette was wrapped in a dark blanket as they searched for Pietro, but all Wanda could see was the face of Clio Lackova.
It felt like ages since she had seen a face other than that of her dead parents and Pietro. Seeing her best friend made Wanda feel like the weight of the world was being lifted off her shoulders.
The girls immediately ran into a hug and clung to each other as if there was no one else in the world around them.
Soon, Wanda melted into a mess of tears and without hesitation, the ten-year-old took responsibility in comforting her.
Other adults tried to help the young Maximoff, but Wanda needed nothing more than the comfort and knowledge that her best friend would pull her out of the mess her life had crashed into.
Soon enough, they pulled out Pietro and wrapped him in a blanket. He darted to the two girls and the trio embraced in a group hug.
Time faded away as they stood there together, relishing in comfort that they had not felt for days.
The three ten-year-olds had to grow up so fast in the midst of the war, but this had just shoved them into adulthood. They deserved innocence, playing games and giggling about having crushes at school, and yet that was what they had received.
Clio did not ask her mother's permission before accompanying her friends to the hospital and her mother did not yell when she brought the twins home and told them they could live with her as long as they needed.
They deserved far more than they got, but no matter how bad their life had been, how brutal the war had been, they had each other for comfort.
Adults were too busy with the war, either serving as soldiers, rebelling, or fighting to stay safe. The kids of Sokovia had nobody but each other to understand and survive the battle.
So when Wanda and Pietro were each awoken by nightmares, Clio was the one to help them while her mother was out rebelling the war until the early hours of the morning.
They didn't mind. It was their life. They didn't know anything outside of it.
Which was exactly why in seven years, all three of them would fight for that peace they had never seen.
They would rebel against the war and rebel against the many deaths that it had created, including Clio's mother when she was just fifteen.
However, as they rebelled they would all find they were heavily outmatched and, desperate for a way to end the war, would turn to a man called Strucker who promised they would become the greatest soldiers Sokovia had ever seen.